Within our congregation, we serve one another in many ways through our Ministry Teams. We teach and mentor, we greet or offer hospitality, we visit the homebound or we participate in worship. Take a look at the many opportunities and contact us about sharing your talents. Contact the Reverend Chuck Williamson to learn more about the many ways our members serve one another. Or look for immediate opportunities to serve on the website’s Now at FPC page, under Tickets & Signups or News & Announcements.

• Teaching and Mentoring
• Hospitality
• Care and Concern
• Worship and Arts

Here at the intersection of Church and Trade streets, First Presbyterian Church members have a unique opportunity to serve our neighbors in the heart of Charlotte and throughout our city. Our location gives us the chance to be hands-on partners with agencies and initiatives that fight hunger and poverty. We also support the need for better education and more economic opportunities. Some of the ways we share our gifts of time, talent and resources locally include:

• Housing the largest Loaves and Fishes pantry in the region
• Providing meals and shelter to our homeless neighbors two nights a week during the coldest months of the year as part of Room in the Inn
• Sponsoring more than 60 children every summer for Camp Grier in the North Carolina mountains—a project we’ve been carrying out for more than 40 years
• Offering six weeks of summer academic intervention for young scholars from Westerly Hills School, in conjunction with BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)
• Working year after year with such diverse organizations as Charlotte Rescue Mission, Crisis Assistance Ministry, Urban Ministry Center, Stop Hunger Now, Habitat for Humanity and more

Contact the Reverend Chuck Williamson to learn more about the many ways our members serve our community. If you are interested in creating better opportunities for children in West Charlotte through our partnership with Westerly Hills Academy, contact Heather Herring. Or look for immediate opportunities to serve on the website’s Now at FPC page.

First Presbyterian Church’s Local Outreach Committee requested proposals to assist with the assessment and planning of our efforts.  C.A. Friend Consulting responded to this request. This report focuses on the methodology, findings of the assessment, and the recommended plan. C.A. Friend Consulting used a mixed-methods approach for the assessment. That is, the assessment gathered both qualitative and quantitative data. After analyzing the data findings were categorized into seven thematic areas.

1. Ready and Willing to Change
2. Connections to Spiritual Life
3. Partner and Community Engagement Improvement
4. Member Education and Engagement Improvements
5. Governance and Management Improvements
6. Data-Informed and Person-Centered
7. Need for Focused Financial Support

These findings also led to a series of recommendations about a strategic plan. Recommendation 1 is the broad recommendation that the church move from outreach to engagement. This move would influence all of the remaining recommendations.  The remaining recommendations are as follows:

Recommendation 2: Move Ministry of Giving to Ministry of Relationship
Recommendation 3: Move from Short-Term to Mid-Term
Recommendation 4: Move From Focus on Individuals to Focus on Families and Communities
Recommendation 5: Move From Broad Geographic Focused to Specific Community Focus

These recommendations guide the 2021-2025 FPC Community Engagement Plan. This plan can be viewed in the accompanying PowerPoint presentation here.

The Advocacy Committee seeks to help First Presbyterian learn about the challenges facing our neighbors in Charlotte and to inform the congregation about opportunities for addressing those challenges, both individually and as a church. Find out more at fpcpathways.com/advocacy

The regional and global ministries of First Presbyterian span continents and issue areas, with mission teams supporting ministries ranging from Eastern North Carolina to Haiti, Russia, The Congo, Cuba and the Yucatan. These ministries develop churches, schools, pastors and medical clinics; equip Presbyterian missionaries; and help our members build powerful relationships with their brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe.

• In Haiti, our partner Outreach for Christ in Bayonnais (OFCB) serves a remote mountain valley, working with two schools, a clinic and the local church. Our members participate in mission trips once or twice a year.
• In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we support missionaries in their work with partner churches and organizations to help them develop stronger health care in Congo.
• From the WEC (Worldwide Evangelization for Christ) headquarters in Singapore, we support mission workers who bring good news to some of the most isolated places in the world.
• In Ryazan, Russia, our partners are members of Hope Baptist Church, which, despite religious persecution and economic difficulties, is a growing and thriving ministry. Our members participate in mission trips every few years.
• In Mexico, we partner with Accion Ministries and VIM (Villa Infantil Maya or The Mayan Children’s Village), which provide residential care for poor children from the surrounding villages where there are no middle or high schools, as well as a few children who are orphaned or live under difficult situations.
• In Cuba, we support the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas. The ecumenical seminary educates ministers and lay people in Cuba, where a generation of citizens has not experienced open worship opportunities and is now freely sharing their faith in God, their support of the church, and their love of their neighbors.

Both adults and youth at First Presbyterian participate in domestic and international mission trips.

Watch the Now@First page for details on trips.

• Haiti: A trip scheduled for winter 2019 was postponed and will be rescheduled.
• Russia/Summer 2020: This mission trip to Russia continues our congregation’s support of the ministry of Hope Baptist Church in Ryazan. Contact Mary Elizabeth Coley.
• Intra-National Mission/Fall 2020: Each year our church sends a mission team to an area in the US that is recovering from a natural disaster. Teams have gone to New York City to help with the recovery from super storm Sandy and to eastern North Carolina to help rebuild after the hurricanes of recent years. Contact David Burton for more information.

Contact Global Mission Chair Stacy Lynch with questions.

You are invited to jump in and begin making a difference with your First Presbyterian brothers and sisters any time. Right now, opportunities for serving in person are limited. But you can keep up with opportunities under Outreach on the Life at First page on the website.

That’s what Ministry Teams are: The place where we share the gifts God has given us.

At First Presbyterian Church, we are blessed with an abundance of places to live out God’s calling to us. So let’s make it easy for you to find where you fit in.

Three simple steps: Here are three simple steps for tapping into what God is doing in and through our congregation.

1. Explore: Talk to others. Ask questions. Pray. Discern.
2. Show Up: Give something a try. Join in. Check your options on the website’s Now@First page.
3. Trust God: If you do steps one and two, God pulls you into the heart of the church and creates results you never imagined.

 What stirs your heart and soul? Think about these seven core areas where your gifts and your interests might match what God is unleashing in the heart of Charlotte.

• Care & Prayer
• Children
• Global Mission
• Growing in Faith
• Hunger, Housing & Poverty
• Welcome, Hospitality & Fellowship
• Worship & Music

Visit the Resources page on the website for details about opportunities in these areas.